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Assam Accord implementation: Challenges before new Govt

By R Dutta Choudhury

GUWAHATI, Aug 14 - Yet another year has passed without proper implementation of the main clauses of the historic Assam Accord signed in 1985 to pave the way for detection and deportation of illegal foreigners. However, with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which has always been blaming the Congress for not implementing the Accord, heading the governments in Delhi and Dispur, it is time the party proved its sincerity on the issue to implement the Accord within a specific time frame.

However, the BJP-led government at the Centre is violating the spirit of the Accord with the move to provide shelter to the foreigners, who had come to India from the neighbouring countries following religious persecution in their own countries. As per the Accord, the foreigners who came to Assam after the midnight of March 24, 1971, should be detected and deported. The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, moved by the government, had to be sent to the select committee of the Parliament following strong opposition from different political parties and now it remains to be seen whether the Bill is finally passed by the Parliament. If the Bill is passed, there will be a lot of confusion regarding the cut-off date for detection of foreigners and Assam may face a number of problems as various political parties and organisations, including the All Assam Students� Union (AASU), are opposing the Centre�s move.

The process of detection and deportation of foreigners living illegally in Assam remains a farce as a large number of cases are pending in the tribunals set up under the provisions of the Foreigners� Act and less than 10 per cent of the persons declared as foreigners by the tribunals can be pushed back because the Government of Bangladesh often refuses to accept such persons as their own citizens. Though the number of tribunals has been increased, the government is yet to provide the required facilities to expedite the trial of the cases.

On the positive side, Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal recently held a meeting with the members of the tribunals and assured them to extend all necessary help to expedite the process of detection of foreigners. Now, it is up to the Chief Minister to translate his promises into reality.

Another major problem is that quite a large number of suspected foreigners go into hiding whenever notices are issued to them from the tribunals as there is no mechanism to keep a watch on them during the trial period and the government should look into this issue. Over the years, no serious effort has been made to strengthen the Border Police Force and to create a second line of defence, despite the fact that a decision in this regard was taken way back in 1999. The Central and State governments should show their sincerity on the issue by strengthening the Border Police Force and the River Police wing immediately. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who claims that India has been maintaining �very cordial� relation with Bangladesh, should take up the issue of deportation of persons declared as Bangladeshi nationals by the tribunals with his Bangladesh counterpart and sign a push back treaty if possible.

Once the process of updating the National Register of Citizens (NRC) is completed, it will definitely improve the process of detection of foreigners living in the State. But the process has hit hurdles as several states of the country are not cooperating in the NRC update process and the Centre should issue directive to all the states to ensure that the documents sent for verification are returned within a stipulated time frame.

Sealing the border: The failure of the Government of India to seal the international border with Bangladesh is also a matter of concern. Though the strength of the Border Security Force (BSF) has been increased with the creation of a new Frontier of the force in Guwahati, there is need for reducing the gap between the border outposts of the force. Moreover, the construction of fencing along the international border is also progressing slowly. The Chief Minister recently expressed the view that the Army should be entrusted with the responsibility of constructing the physical barrier along the international border. It may be mentioned that the Army had constructed 700 km of fencing in tough terrain along the Jammu and Kashmir international border within a year. The construction of fencing only along the Assam-Bangladesh border will not help till the entire international border in the Northeast is fenced as any foreign national can sneak into India through other states and move to Assam.

The situation has become far more serious now as along with Bangladeshi nationals, elements of jehadi forces are also sneaking into India from Bangladesh, which was evident with the apprehension of a number of members of the Jamaat-ul-Mujaheedin (JMB) in lower Assam districts. The activities of Islamic State in Bangladesh is also causing worry as the possibility of elements of such outfits sneaking into India by taking advantage of the porous border cannot be ruled out.

Clauses 6 and 7: Under the provisions of Clause 6 of the Accord, the Government of India assured to provide constitutional protection to the indigenous people of the State to protect their identity in the face of silent invasion of foreign nationals. But unfortunately, the clause remained on paper even after 31 years of signing of the Accord. The AASU has been demanding that seats in the Parliament, State Assembly and local bodies should be reserved for indigenous people of the State under the provision of clause 6 of the Accord, but so far, the Central and State governments have not been able to determine who are �Assamese people�. From time to time, the State Government had formed Cabinet subcommittees to deal with the issue, but no concrete proposal could emerge. Now, it remains to be seen whether the BJP-led governments at the Centre and in the State can do something about protecting the identity and political rights of the indigenous people of Assam by implementing clause 6 of the Accord.

In clause 7, the Government of India assured to take steps for overall economic development of the State so as to improve the standard of living of the people. As flood and erosion problem is a major hurdle in the growth of economy, particularly the rural economy, there have been persistent demands to declare floods as a national problem so that the Centre can take effective long-term measures for a permanent solution to the problem.

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